I’m 20 yrs. old, 5’7", 180 lbs and have been lifting for about 3 years. In terms of size I’m doing pretty well. I’m bigger than most of the people I see in the gym. My problem is that I look a lot stronger than I lift. For example, my arms look signifianctly bigger than the arms of guys curling a lot more than I am. I recently began German Volume Training in the hopes that a radically new regiment would lead to strength gains. What other suggestions do you guys to help me become as strong as I look?
Lift more weight.
Seriously, lift more weight; don’t just lift weight more.
You don’t say what set/rep scheme(s) you use. If you’ve been doing 3 sets of 8-10 reps, the answer is easy: pick a heavier weight that only allows you 4-5 reps with good form, and do 5 sets of 5, or even 6 sets of 4.
If you find that you can do, say, 5x5 with good form, add more weight to the bar.
Oh yeah, and eat more. And read the archives on this site. Or just wait another day and you’ll get more advice from people here. If you posted your typical workout and usual diet, then the knowledgeable people will be able to jump in and offer more specific advice.
Try doing some powerlifting for a while. Look up Westside Barbell. That will make you strong. All show and no go ain’t a great look in my book.
Ditch the GVT, it is not a great program for strength gains. It is more a program for mass due to the very high volume. It’s border line over training, which is why it only works for a few weeks, and should be followed by low volume high intensity training.
If you are looking for increased strength, definately do a low volume high intensity program for a while. This will provide strength gains, and also will probabaly create some new mass gains by training this way. Chad Waterbury has a lot of programs that are very popular here and are geared to low volume strength training, Anti-Bodybuilding Hypertrophy (ABBH) is arguably the most popular on this site. Another article that is world reading is Training with Maximal Weights by Charles Poliquin in the 1998 archives, this might be good for you because its specific to arms and is a good read on the benefits of maximal weight training.
I’ve mainly been keeping my rep ranges 6-10, and performing 10 sets per bodypart. If I lower my rep range to 4-6 should I keep my sets per bodypart at 10? Also, do you think that the anti-bodybuilding hypertrophy program would work better for me?
JDA,
Yes, ABBH while being a hypertrophy specific program is GREAT for strength as well. So yes it would do you some good.
As far as reps and sets. Sure you could stick with your ten sets. Just drop the isolation excersizes and concentrate on BIG compound movements, lower reps and HEAVY loads.
Seeing as strength is your main concern right now. I would second the suggestion of reading any and all by Dave Tate and the west side bunch.
Also, before moving onto ABBH I would suggest you do a program more like “Strength-Focused Mesocycle
by Chad Waterbury”. It is focused purely on gaining strength. Then move to his ABBH etc. to continue the strength gains and recieve some size as well.
Most of all just change it up. Lift HEAVY as suggested.
Hope this helps,
Phill
Take a look at Don Alessi’s Booming Biceps article, it talks about how shoulder stability can be a limiting factor in arm strength.